Polkerris

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Polkerris Cove
Polkerris Cove

This small fishing hamlet west of Fowey has a sandy sheltered beach and pub named after a local 18th century landowning family named Rashleigh. His nearby family home Menabilly became Manderley in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. Du Maurier spent many years here before moving to another local house, Kilmarth. The adjacent headland Gribbin Head is part of the ancient grounds of Menabilly and in 1832 Rashleigh gave his permission for a marker to be built there to guide ships into the Fowey river mouth safely. At his request the daymark is an elegant structure in red and white stone.

The Rashleigh Inn is on the waterfront in Polkerris, where pilchard works would once have been busy. It serves food and drink and often provides weekend entertainment in the form of live music.

Set into the cliffs around nearby Readymoney Cove are the remains of the small artillery fort of St Catherine's Castle, built by Henry VIII in 1536 to defend Fowey Harbour and now managed by English Heritage.